Battery Lawnmower

[smegal]

Has anyone tried any of the robot (mower in a kennel) type mowers?

I have a Husqvarna Automower 315 which I bought in 2017. It's a love hate relationship. When it works it is fantastic. However since the second year I have had something break on it taking it out of action when the grass is growing fastest. Last year it failed about 1.5 months before the end of the mowing season and I didn't get it back until the winter so it went straight in the garage. When I went to start mowing I found it wasn't driving properly so took it back. The new motherboard wasn't working so it was replaced.I took it back home and found now the cutting disk wasn't driving. Again the new replacement motherboard wasn't working. I then had to wait for 6 weeks for another new motherboard. it is finally cutting but hitches now and then which is a sure sign that one of the drive motors is on its way out. They make the gear boxes from cheese.

So some of the things that have broken...

The base station hadn't been assembled correctly resulting in moisture damaging the motherboard requiring replacement just out of warranty
3-4 drive motors, I forget exactly how many.
Corrosion on the mower motherboard leading to replacement.
Battery requiring replacing as it was useless.

They are a lot of money and the last repair cost £600 which is just ridiculous. The next time ti fails I'm paying my son to mow with a regular old push mower as I'd prefer he gets the money

That's a shame. Husky are one of the few robot mower manufacturers who make them in the UK.

[Mr Gus]

Sounds like you have a valid claim of "not fit for purpose" gotta be easier than dealing with Tesla surely?

[Jinx]

There are a few FB groups for the robot mowers, I’ve not kept up with it much so the newer models might be a massive improvement but from what I’ve gathered the Husky is a bit of a laughing stock, generally bought for the name and perceived as quality but unfortunately suffers a fair few problems. The Worx FB group seem to have some direct contact with the factory and firmware is constantly updated, for example mine now turns with a sweep rather than the robotic type stop and turn it did the last couple years. I get the occasional ‘out of area’ text but it’s on a rather uneven and sloped garden so I put up with it and simply pop it back on the lawn.

[Swwils]

My flymo robo.mower being working fine for years and I've done nothing to it, not even changed the blades. Great little thing.

[Moxi]

I'm guessing these things need relatively flat ground ie not the higgedly piggeldy field that we call the front garden, not that there's anywhere where the current mower scalps the crowns but that's down to me changing direction to get the best contour to avoid such occurrences.

These units do sound tempting as I like the grass kept short for the kids to go and play and the grandparents to get to the raised beds but lord dont you spend a lot of years cutting grass!

Moxi

[Mr Gus]

Take what I wrote about amazon summer prime week sales on board, they sell out as an exclusive then put a bigger cut area model in its place a few days later because *batteries* ..cunning,.

However ...I see this guy & his cannibalisation to gps mower project, after a remote control boundary run, it works damn well.

[Andy]

…. but lord dont you spend a lot of years cutting grass!

Moxi

My plan ultimately is yellow rattle and wild seeds with a few paths. I’ve already let go quite a bit of our fields to do as it pleases. It’s nice watching the birds getting the different seeds as the year progresses.